Seeing Sideways

Sunday, December 2, 2012

I have to completely agree with Beth that the film, What the Bleep do we know?, had some ideas that I completely agree with and others that seem too far-fetched to be realistic. One of the things that was funny was the part when they discussed all of the frozen water appearing differently when words were spoken into them. Maybe they didn't know that all snowflakes (aka small amounts of frozen water) look differently?

But the part that I am really focusing on for class is the nullification of touch. Now one could argue that, if no two things touch you can still feel the effect of the close proximity of another object (like knowing a door or a wall is nearby because the air around it feels differently). But let's take humans out of the equation. If two objects never touch, how can a pencil leave markings on a sheet of paper? Does the graphite simply float above the paper but it is too close to the paper for the human eye to tell? And if so, is there some kind of attraction that prevents the graphite from moving to a different position on the paper?

This is a prime example of how confusing the world becomes when you present theories as facts. If something occurs in only specific situations, wouldn't it be more beneficial to label it as an anomaly than to try to force others to believe it is a scientific law? The world is simple; people make it complicated.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

The presentation that affected me the most was Cassandra's, which was about the anxiety of heights while Skydiving. I responded to it strongly because an anxiety of heights is something that I have myself. I cannot say that I have a fear of heights because I haven't really been put into a situation where I was going to be forced to, say, skydive or freefall; however it does make it uncomfortable even watching an immersive film of flying over mountains or cities.

Listening to Cassandra's experience allowed me to view my own project differently. When I have thought of fear before doing research in this class, my brain immediately associated it with television/violence/horror (and I have associated anxiety with people with handicaps like schizophrenia). But listening to Cassy's experience allowed me to take a step back and remember that anxiety is something that affects my own life. You don't have to be in a life-threatening situation to be extremely nervous about a circumstance.

Beth seemed glad that I mentioned the comparison between fear and anxiety. She agreed with me that the only true fear is fear of the unknown.

People were engaged with the video clips I showed (particularly Epiphany from Sweeney Todd).

Overall the class spent about 20 minutes discussing the issues posed by my presentation before moving on to the next student.

Analysis of hypothesis with actual outcome:

I was actually surprised to find that many other students (and the professor) had a similar take on fear as I did. I was expecting people to be more surprised by the idea of fear not really being a commonly felt emotion.

Propose changes to your idea based on what happened:

I don't think that the experiment should be changed because it sparked a good discussion with the class. That doesn't necessarily mean that the results of the experiment were what was expected; sometimes unexpected results are a good thing. I think it would be beneficial to conduct this experiment with people who did not grow up with the freedom and luxuries Americans have. Perhaps the reaction would be quite different in the Middle East than it is here.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Society often highlights (and exaggerates) fears of childhood. One could argue that the purpose of this is to help people realize that they can overcome their fears in the real world because they have overcome the "dangerous" fears already.

What
is fear? Fear is an emotion that is evoked by something that is perceived to be
a threat to an individual. Fear can prevent someone from reaching their true
potential. I, personally, am afraid of heights. Fear can either prevent you
from accomplishing your dreams, or it can be the fuel that drives you to go
further than you ever thought you could. No matter what your fear is, fear is
an internal struggle rather than an external one. After all, something is only
scary if you allow it to be. You may be naturally wired to turn your back on a
situation, but you have the choice to face it head on if you want to.

I believe that my classmates will be
very shocked at my approach to fear. I hope that it will urge them all to
reflect on their own understandings of fear.I don’t believe that anyone else in the class will take the same
approach as me.